Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Solo Performance Commissioning Project

This is the beginning of what I know will be a thrilling and dauntingjourney. I have so many friends and family to thank for making itpossible.As you know I have been on a fund raising campaign to be able toattend the Deborah Hay workshop this August in Findhorn, Scotland.Deborah requires that participants raise money from their community ofpeers, friends, and family rather than simply paying out of pocket,or appealing to funding agencies. What's more, anyone who funds mealso becomes a funder of all the other participants of the workshopand will be listed as such in any and all of their programs &publicity for any future performances.It feels truly political. What does that mean? Now I get confusedabout what qualifies as political or not, but it has something to dowith making a statement; it has something to do with bucking thesystem; It has something to do with bringing unrelated, orunfamiliar, or unique ideas together against certain odds andexpectations. It creates a global network of everyday people whosupport the commissioning and thereby own the art.It feels radical to me ...

... Like Deborah Hay's work.

I went to see Deborah Hay's. "O,O" on February 8 at St. Mark'schurch. This was done with a recast version of the French company. Iam still dreaming about it and only want to see it again. What did Ilearn? I learned that if you try to create a dream on stage then whatyou get (and probably deserve) is a "dream", but if you put somethingreal on the stage you get a DREAM. A dream that stays with you. Whatthese dancers are doing is so exposed and generous and charming andfunny and pure presence. This is it - pure presence. A tired word in the performing arts I know, but here it is in all its gloryand embarrassment. Embarrassing for the viewer and the doer as wellI'm sure. Here's to embarrassment. Here's to presence. Here's to beinghuman.

I'll be using this post to record all things SPCP in case anyone isinterested, and to keep those of you who helped me up to date on myprogress.

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Links of Interest

Poem of the day (or whenever I change it)

"Odysseus"Always the setting forth was the same,Same sea, same dangers waiting for himAs though he had got nowhere but older.Behind him on the receding shoreThe identical reproaches, and somewhereOut before him, the unravelling patienceHe was wedded to. There were the islandsEach with its woman and twining welcomeTo be navigated, and one to call ``home.''The knowledge of all that he betrayedGrew till it was the same whether he stayedOr went. Therefore he went. And what wonderIf sometimes he could not rememberWhich was the one who wished on his departurePerils that he could never sail through,And which, improbable, remote, and true,Was the one he kept sailing home to?